How Many Watts Per Square Foot Of Solar Panel

Solar panels usually range in wattage output from around 250 watts to 400 watts but some panels exceed the 400 watt mark.

How many watts per square foot of solar panel.

A typical american home will need 14 36 solar panels to cover their power bill and at least 227 square feet of rooftop space to accommodate the solar panels. The average system size in the u s. So how many square feet of your roof will your pv solar system cover. Below are cost estimates based on home size.

However most installers estimate solar costs by the amount of energy needed at 2 53 to 3 15 per watt before any tax credits or incentives. Cost of solar panels per square foot. Here s how many solar panels that equals. And the typical solar panel makes 320 watts of electricity in ideal sunny conditions.

For a 300 watt solar panel with dimensions 64 inches x 39 inches 1 61 meters squared or 17 31 square feet the peak instantaneous electricity production per square foot at stc is 14 58 watts per square foot. Solar panel systems are measured in terms of kw. The amount of energy that solar panels can absorb and then produce is measured in kilowatts kw. In order to calculate the below data we averaged annual kwh production in the top 12 solar states and assumed standard 250 watt panels in order to calculate how many panels you would need.

To put that into perspective a typical household uses about 897 kwh per month. The first is to look at the peak possible instantaneous solar power production per square foot for a particular solar panel. That translates to just over 15 watts per square foot. The average sized solar panel takes up an area of 17 6 square feet and produces 265 watts under direct sunlight.

Because of the variables pinning down exact numbers is tough. Considering 6 peak sun hours per day and 300 watt panels you need 16 to produce 700 kwh each month. The top panel in the e series comes out at a whopping 435 watts. A common size solar panel array is usually around 5kw and takes up around 400 square feet of space.

If you have limited roof space the best recommendation is installing the most efficient solar panels available. The amount of energy your home uses over a certain timeframe say a month is measured in kilowatt hours kwh. The cost of solar panels to power your house are 4 to 10 per square foot. But at 20 watts per square foot a system rated to produce 2 kilowatts would cover roughly 150 square feet while a 3kw system would take up about 225 square feet.

While your home is far from average this is how you can calculate your own rough estimate. This will maximize the watts installed per square foot compensating the area limitation. Divide 6 62 kw the system size by 320 kw the wattage per panel 20 69 rounded up that s 21 panels. Sizing a solar panel system to your home s electric usage can be done by taking look at your energy bills over a year.

An array of this size can produce an average of 350 850 kwh of ac energy per month.